De duantocks ana tfjeir BY WILLIAM H. P. GRESWELL. etymology of the Place-name, Quantock, anciently THEwritten Cantok, is an interesting but rather elusive " it full study. Some have derived from Gwantog," i.e., of " " openings or combes. Some have regarded Cant-ioc as a " " little in diminutive, meaning headlands ; Dr. Pring his " Briton and Roman on the site of Taunton," has suggested " " hill Cuan," Gaelic for hill, and Toich," country, i.e., the " country : some have playfully mentioned the old Quantum ab hoc," but no one, as far as I know, seems to have thought that Cantok, like Caer Caradoc, may have been named from a person. Crantock in Cornwall, and also in Cardigan is named from Carantacus, and this Saint, a contemporary of King Arthur, is connected with Carhampton according to Leland. At any rate, Carantacus was known under the Quantocks, and, if we desire to speculate, there is no reason why that well-known stone on Winsford Hill should not commemorate Carantacus. To come to more solid facts and documents, perhaps the ear- liest mention of Cantok is in the composite word Cantucudu, i.e., Cantok Wood, in Centwine's famous West Monkton Charter, " when he gave twenty-three mansiones to Glastonbury in loco juxta silvam famosam quae dicitur Cantucudu." This is dated A.D. 682, and the light it gives us is interesting. The fame of 126 Papers^ -c. this Cantok Wood, and of its goodly trees, was already known. The Charter of C entwine was subsequently confirmed by King Ina, the Saxon prince, who figures so largely in our local annals. The late Professor Freeman has a note about Centwine's Con- 1 " quest. In 682, Centwine, fighting against the British, gained for the West Saxons the sea coast west of the mouth of the Parret ... in short Centwine's victory made the English mas- ters of Quantock . How far west towards Dunster, Porlock, I do not profess to say ... in this campaign I conceive that sites the West Saxons won the of Bridgwater and Watchet ; and we may, I think, venture to picture Centwine as forcing the gate, the Lydiard, and driving the Welsh up the valley where, in after days, Crowcombe was given (by Gytha) for the repose of the soul of Godwin."' This conflict may have given rise to " the name Willsneck or Waelas Nek," the pass of the waclas, as the British were called by the Saxons, running just under Bagborough Hill, the latter being the old name for the highest point of the Quantocks. We all know of Conquest Farm in Lydeard Episcopi parish, but there is a field still known as the " Great Field of Battle," in Crowcombe parish, where the con- tending forces of Saxons and British might have fought, as the former pushed down between Willet (Waelas?) Hill and Willsneck in the direction of Williton (Waelas-Ton ?) and Wacet or Watchet, so well known as a Saxon port in after years. Place-names point to the fact that towards Brendon and Exmoor the Waelas stood their ground longer than around the flat country to the east and south of the Quantocks. It was on the Taunton side that the Saxons, therefore, first touched the Quantocks, in all probability, and the famosa silva was that adjoining Monkton, and stretching north over Broomfield and along the deep combes of Aisholt and Over Stowey. The road their conquering soldiers took was probably along Quantock ridges, from King's Cliff, by Lydeard Farm in Broomfield parish, up Buncombe Hill to Cothelston, Bag- 1. Som. Arch. Proceedings, vol. xviii, p. 43. The Quantocks and their Place-Names. 127 borough, Triscombe Stone, Crowcombe Combe Gate, and so on down to Stapol Plain, West Quantockshead to Doniford and Watchet. This is a very old route, said to be partly indi- cated on old Crowcombe Estate maps, and is exactly what we should expect to find. From Wecet and Porlock the Waelas would be driven across the Severn Sea to South Wales, or, further down, towards Exmoor, North Devon, and the Cornish coasts. It is worth while to note the course of two invasions upon the Quantock country and West Somerset, the one spiritual and the other military. Keltic Christianity, coming from South Wales, as we gather from S. Dubritius of Porlock, S. Colum- ban (mentioned by Leland, at the extreme west of Somerset, 2 and also figuring at Cheddar), S. Carantacus at Carhampton, (Carntoun being shortly written for Carantokes Towne, accord- 3 ing to Leland), S. Decumanus, and many others, made itself felt first along the coast of the Severn sea. The church dedi- cations of North Somerset point to a Keltic fringe. The Severn sea was a natural highway for the Sailor Saints, and Grildas, himself a sailor on the Severn sea, has said in his " Hist. Brit., 31 : Transmigrare maria terrasque spatiosas transmeare non tarn piget Britannos sacerdotes quam delectat." (c. A.D. 560). But the Saxons would seem to have approached West Somerset from exactly the opposite direction, and j;o have fol- lowed the Roman lines of communication from the south, and along the Mendips, until the Uxellae aestuarium was reached. Nor was the Mendip height the sole highway at the disposal of the Saxon foe, for indeed the ridges of the Poldens and of the Quantocks, no less than the Mendips, furnished a simi- " " lar natural line of communication or dorsum to the Severn waters as the conquerors pushed their way down further west. The unalterable features of the land themselves suggest this 2. Somerset Record Society. Vol. i, pp. 22, 194. 3. Som. Arch. Proceedings, vol. xxxiii, pt. ii, p. 97. 128 Papers, fyc. kind of progress, in Roman, as well as in Saxon times, the valleys themselves being of little use, from a strategic point of view, unless held in connection with the ridges above them. History and the researches of archaeology confirm this primd facie supposition, gathered from geography. The Severn ter- minus of ancient Mendip lies at Brean-down and the fortress of Worlebury Camp. Roman remains have been found at Portus de Radeclive, Redcliff or Reckly, about two-and-a-half " miles from j^ xebridge, a Portus in the ancient Hundred of " Banwell."4 The terminus of the Poldens was the old Burgh de Capite Montis," z>., the Doneham of Domesday, also called Cheldelmunt, 5 the Downend near Dunball Station. A primitive Castrum would appear to have existed here, and the Portus might have been Bridgwater itself. There are signs, however, of a road to Stretcholt in Paulet to Black Rock on the Parret. The terminus of the Quantock ridges would have been Doniford and Wecet. But we seem to know Wecet, and further west, Porlock, in history more as Saxon than as Roman ports. In tracing the dim outlines of the Saxon Conquest from the south, the Quan- tocks are certainly no less interesting than the Mendips or Poldens. In the Danish campaigns of King Alfred, these hills, as furnishing a base to Athelney Island, have an interest second to none. They provided by far the quickest and safest retreat to the Sabrina amnis from Petherton Park, one of the old Royal Forests, and along their whole length their " combes furnished admirable refuges for the men of Somer- set," who, as Ethelwerd, the chronicler, tells us, alone assisted " him, together with the servants who made use of the King's 6 pastures." In the Charter of Aethelwulf, A.D. 854, giving the boun- daries of the Manor of Taunton Dean, a large southern por- 4. Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries, Dec., 1898. 5. Somerset Record Society. The Placita. 6. Jubilee Edition of King Alfred's Works. Vol. 1, p. 70. The Quantocks and their Place-Names. 129 7 tion of the Quantocks is included. Some of the Quaritock place-names are interesting. From Lydeard S. Lawrence the " boundary runs ad occidentalem partem vallis qua? Truscombe nominatur," then eastwards to Rugan or Bugan Beorh, i.e., Bagborough. Thence along a horse-path over the hills to Aescholtes (Aisholt) thence past plscis fontem (Vish-pool) or " Bish-pool, and sic ad Elwylle," Thence across Quantock ridge again, somewhere near or along Buncombe to Kingston, Hestercombe, Sidbrook and Bathpool. By this boundary some important Quantock parishes, from Triscombe, south- wards, fall under the famous Manor of Taunton Dean, with all its old world customs and privileges. The manor became the property of the Bishops of Winchester. The mention of Cantuctune, or the ton of Cantok in King Alfred's will (871885) is very interesting. "The Land at " Cantuctune is mentioned together with Carumtune (Car- hampton), Burnhamme, Wedmor and Cheddar, and, together with other estates, is left in the most formal way, as private property, to the eldest son, Eadweard, who succeeded King Alfred. It is also inherited property, which adds a little to its interest, and throws the title further back. Williton, Car- hampton, Cannington, Andredesfeld, are all Royal Hundreds, and represent a goodly block of land in which Cantok or Quantock is a main geographical feature. The Saxonisation of this part of West Somerset had been going on gradually not quickly since Centwine and Ina's days. Taunton, or the Ton on the Tan (the coloured river) in allusion to its tawny waters in flood had sprung up, and many another Saxon Ton, but where was Cantucton ? Had it arisen in some portion of that famosa silva of Cantucudu ? Was it on the west or on the east side of the long ridge of Cantok ? Was it the same as Cannington ? The West Saxon kingdom was developing itself in many ways along the Severn sea.